


living in the meanwhile

by Jolly Camaleonte (ginnyx)



Category: Metallica
Genre: Dorks, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Kirk POV, Male Friendship, St. Anger Era, Touring, band dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23945734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginnyx/pseuds/Jolly%20Camaleonte
Summary: Metallica is on a plane for the next leg of theMadly in Anger with the Worldtour and Lars is tired.[Kirk POV, fluffy band dynamics circa 2003]
Relationships: James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett & Lars Ulrich
Kudos: 10





	living in the meanwhile

**Author's Note:**

> This is a super quick thing that I plotted and wrote this morning. If you want Metallica being soft and dorky, this is the place!

You are very much focused –body projected forward, back bent onward— looking intently at the cards on the table, you give Rob a look: he is equally concentrated on the cards and you try to read him.

Then you feel something lean on your back, flat and somewhat heavy.

Keeping the cards near your chest (this is a band of CHEATERS), you turn your head and eye the disturbance.

Lars has his cheek smushed against your shoulder blade and he is rubbing his closed eyes.

(He is tired, strangely.)

(When Lars is tired it’s always strange, even more when the rest of you is not.)

(His sleep has been fucked these last few weeks, and you feel your stomach clench a bit at the thought that this is beyond you, that you can’t help.)

You tilt your face back and return to the game, now Rob smiling knowingly at you.

You have barely put a card down that fingers tickle your sides. You wiggle, surprised, but ignore it, till full length arms try to circle weakly your waist and whiny words of protest are muffled in your shirt.

You turn your head again and you see another set of hands at work.

“C’mon, buddy.”

James is gently prying Lars away from your back, and he is so damn exhausted that he lets him.

“Tired.”

James doesn’t listen and pulls his shoulders up and turns them, guiding him down on his lap.

Head now laid again, Lars sighs comfortably.

“You were gonna get a crick on your neck sleeping like that.”

Lars just adjusts his cheek on his thigh, rubbing it against the warmth.

James simply throws his arm over Lars’ belly –not gripping, but holding still with its sole presence— and goes back at reading his magazine.

You blink and suddenly your mind is a month ahead of now, a month in which Lars is not tired and takes what was once offered.

_You can clearly see it._

He is bored and he sprawls on you two: head on James’ lap, dirty socked feet on yours.

You can hear him dramatically awing, adjusting his head, “so this is how a Hetfield’s guitar feels like!”, he would bounce his head up and down, “so soft, so _comfy_ : no wonder they sound so _good_ ” and James would let him do it, just to reiterate, pinching his nose close with two fingers and then pulling it around jokingly like a knob “damn, this guitar screeching, how do you tune it???”.

You would _instantly_ jump on the joke, beginning to jab and tickle Lars’ feet.

“Hold on, first you have to plug it in first”, and being the sensitive fuck he is, Lars would start giggling and trashing, obligating you to put his ankles in a deadlock, “damn, this is hard! Is this thing alive or something?”

And James would laugh and battle Lars’ attempt to free himself.

“HELP!” he would racket, with a nasal voice, kicking and giggling, “fuck, Rob, _Rob_! Help!!”

But Rob would just look at James and deadpan “Mhhh, that G string didn’t sound in tune to me, try turning it a bit to the left.”

“You _fucking_ — BETRAYAL! BETRAYAL!”

And the image is so true, so _vivid_ , that you turn toward Rob, full grin on, saying with your eyes _are you seeing this?_

But when your eyes lock, he looks down, hurriedly, and you… don’t understand?

He seems…

Not ashamed per se, but more like you caught him looking?

Well, ok, you _did_ catch him looking, but it’s ok.

 _It’s Lars and James_ , you want to say, _they don’t even know we are in the room when they are like that._ _You know how it is._

And then it hits you: he doesn’t.

He has not been in the band long enough to, but it doesn’t _feel_ like it.

And in that moment every last nervous doubt _(how will this tour go-will it be too much-are we gonna crack)_ dissipates and you finally realize that you are not ‘living in the meanwhile’ anymore.

You can see the after; you can _construct_ an after.

And it has Rob in it, you are _all_ in it –whole, together.

You suddenly stop hoping for the best and expect the worst and just… _know_ , know that it’s gonna be alright.

So, you nudge Rob’ foot with yours and when his eyes are back on yours, you point your chin at the idiots on your right and roll your eyes.

He slowly grins at you and you grin back.

_Yeah, it’s gonna be all right._

**Author's Note:**

> IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE ROB TRUJILLO!  
> That said, sorry for the second person pov but holy shit with FOUR male characters my italian ass gets dizzy with all the "him/his/he" so if i can take one, just ONE, away... it feels like victory to me xD  
> Also, if you spot any grammar _horror_ in this, please feel free to point it out to me (it's always a huge help!).


End file.
